She says she sells food on the side because her neighbours love her cooking.

But she is perhaps best known as the sister of Eric Garner, whose face adorns her red apron.

Two years after his death at the hands of the New York Police Department (NYPD), she and those gathered around her feel little has changed in terms of their community's relationship with police.

They feel disrespected, if not for the colour of their skin then for the poor neighbourhood where they live.

"You have to respect one another," she said. "It don't go one way."

"I see on a daily basis police just stop people, frisk you for no reason," said Tyrone Earl, who was buying chicken.

"You ask them, why are you stopping me? They just make up a reason."

City statistics say otherwise.

Under a court order and the leadership of outgoing police Commissioner Bill Bratton, the city has dramatically curtailed its aggressive "stop and frisk" style of policing that overwhelmingly targeted poor minority communities such as Bed-Stuy.

But the sense of resentment and mistrust it engendered remains strong.

And while violent crime in the city continues to decline, critics say it is coming at the expense of neighbourhoods such as this where the department still follows a “broken windows” model of policing.

The idea, championed by Bratton, is that going after low-level offences such as vandalism or, in the case of Eric Garner, selling untaxed cigarettes, helps to keep communities safer.